Why not make the close area the high res. and then tile more distant parts of the landscape at lower resolutions? That way you cover the amount of landscape needed for a scene, but keep the detail only where it's necessary. There's a reason that tiling was kept, even though the resolutions have become more massive. Just something to think about while on the topic.

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Barbequed Pixels?

Your friendly neighborhood Wings3D nut.
Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.